Always we humans tend to do mistakes and these mistakes cost us dearly.
But many people still don’t take this seriously because of that fact that we can learn from mistakes.
True, but will learning bring back the money we’ve lost?
Here’s 5 money mistakes to avoid in 2014:
1) Lavish weddings
Marrying is a beautiful thing, yes, but lately due to celebrities’ influences, the normal little people like you and I also got hooked.
Why is this bad?
It’s because seeing those lavish expensive weddings on TV has influenced us to do the same.
Many more people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars even more than what they can afford in a year JUST to marry.
They choose expensive venues like castles and grand hotels and invite thousands of people to witness them, and some pay the media to shoot.
Whatever happens to true love?
Is impressing people more important than impressing the one that you love?
It’s a different thing altogether if you have the cash though, but if you can’t it’s best to avoid this pitfall and try a smaller more personal wedding approach like in your garden or near the lake.
It’s beautiful, it’s romantic and it’s cheap and only close people are invited.
More importantly, the few hundred thousand that you saved could be used for more important things like paying for the house, paying for your honeymoon, or your children’s education.
2) Sending children to posh colleges
Sure education is important but that doesn’t mean you need to send your children to expensive private universities.
It’s different if you can afford but if you can’t, sending your children to other universities are just as good.
In the competitive world today, people are looking for experience so no matter how good your education is, as long as you have no independent experience you’ll have a hard time finding a job.
If you come from a backward school or college but you’ve got a certain experience like managing a few events, employers would be more than happy to hire you for your skills.
3) Getting a car loan
Cars are getting too rampant now that even teenagers have their own cars.
Many of us especially guys want to have a car even when they’re young just to impress girls (even me and I regretted that).
But did you know that girls don’t really care about cars?
They care about how well you treat them and plus, getting stuck in a nice air-conditioned bus with someone driving you instead is always better than getting stuck in a traffic jam yourself.
4) Not planning for retirement
Everyone WILL retire but whenever we heard that word, the first thing that goes through our mind is “There’s still time to enjoy”.
Yes there is, but there is also time to start saving up little-by-little.
By the time you’re nearing your 40’s, you’ll be extremely worried because you won’t have that much time to save more and you’ll start to regret not saving earlier.
5) Not setting aside an emergency savings
I’m sure you’ve watched in movies that whenever something happens, the child or the mom would find an emergency money buried somewhere in the house?
That is fiction, yes, but this does apply for real life situations as well.
As much of a planner as we think we are, nobody’s perfect and mistakes happen when we least expect it.
What would you do if your car suddenly breaks down? Or if someone sues you and you have no chance of winning? Or if someone you love gets into trouble and needs an expensive treatment at the hospital?
Would you rather take a loan instead?
Having an emergency savings will come in handy and it will save you time and money in the long run too.
Conclusion
It is always good to learn from mistakes but the money lost will never come back so it’s best to plan ahead, take precautionary steps and prepare contingency plans in order to really minimize you spending and get the best out of it